Cheyenne Students Get Warm and Fuzzy for Charity

students got warm and fuzzy on Friday to encourage positive behavior in their school and raise funds for a local charity.

Sponsored by the Cheyenne PTO and the school student council, Warm and Fuzzy Friday saw students wearing their pj's, sending Fuzzy Grams to friends and teachers and raising money for the .

"Student council representatives came to me and said they wanted to have a day in which we recognize good behavior," said Don Brosky, Cheyenne principal. "They said they wanted students to have a better awareness of how to treat each other."

While this is the first year Warm and Fuzzy Friday has been held, student council board members said they hope it will become an annual event–and not just because they were allowed to wear pajamas to school.

The day kicked off with a morning student assembly in which members of the student council board performed a skit to raise awareness of the homeless youth in Macomb County.

According to statistics from the Macomb Charitable Foundation, as of last June, 803 school-age children were homeless in Macomb County.

"(Student Council) was concerned that when we do these (charity projects) they are sort of tailored to a certain time of year," Brosky said. "There is one event, but kids are homeless in Macomb County all the time, so they wanted to bring awareness to that."

As part of the program, students could send positive messages to friends and teachers in Fuzzy Grams, buy Warm Fuzzies for a $1 and donate items like toilet paper and diapers to MCF.

Crafted by members of the student council, the proceeds raised from the sale of these small cloth balls, named Warm Fuzzies, also benefit MCF.

"I think it's important that students have an understanding and appreciation for what we have and the need to help those less fortunate than us," Brosky said. "We call ourselves the Cheyenne community and we are a relatively large school. Just the sheer number of students and to give students an understanding and empathy for kids that don't have what they have and a lot of them are more than willing to do things."